Washington looks set to send Syrian rebels aid with 'direct military purpose'

US President Barack Obama is reportedly considering supplying weapons for Syrian forces fighting to oust President Bashar Assad and his government. It comes days after Obama said his administration had evidence of chemical weapons use in Syria.

Senior White House officials leaked word of the plan to the
Washington Post just days after Obama decried what he saw as the
Assad regime’s “willingness to escalate its horrific use of
violence” on the Syrian people but claimed that Washington was
exhausting all available options before deciding whether to aid the
insurgency.

The Obama administration has increased its attempts to sway
Russian President Vladimir Putin from his position of
non-intervention in Syria. US Secretary of State John F. Kerry is
planning a trip to Moscow in the coming days to discuss the
situation with Putin before a scheduled meeting between the two
presidents in June.

During a news conference Tuesday Obama told reporters he needed
to “make sure I’ve got the facts…If we end up rushing to
judgment without hard, effective evidence, we can find ourselves in
a position where we can’t mobilize the international community to
support” increased pressure on the Assad government.

Obama’s comments, combined with snippets from his subordinates,
could be interpreted as a not-so-subtle reference to the disastrous
US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“We’re clearly on an upward trajectory,” a senior Obama
official told the Washington Post. “We’ve moved over to
assistance that has a direct military purpose.”

It was not revealed what type of military action the US is
considering, but the results of a New York Times/CBS News poll
reveal that 62 per cent of the American public thinks the US has no
responsibility to get involved in the Syrian conflict.

Still, the unnamed senior official reportedly said that Obama
has “not closed the door to other military actions” and that
the US decision-makers are “reviewing all
options.”

The White House has steadily moved toward militarizing the
rebels in recent months, first saying it would provide food and
medical supplies then announcing body armor and night-vision
goggles would be sent.

“I think it’s important to understand that for several years
now what we’ve been seeing is a slowly unfolding disaster for the
Syrian people,” Obama said. “And this is not a situation
which we’ve been simply bystanders to what’s been happening. My
policy from the beginning has been that President Assad had lost
credibility, that he attacked his own people, has killed his own
people, unleashed a military against innocent civilians and that
the only way to bring stability and peace for Syria is going to be
for Assad to step down.”